1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to body protective garments and more particularly to protective garments which will protect a body in the groin area from weapons which inflict puncture wounds and ballistic wounds.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97-1.99
Various protective garments are known which utilize separately securable groin pads which are externally placed about the groin area of the wearer. Such protective garments having groin pads are often rigid, bulky and are externally worn outside of the clothing of a wearer. A protective garment having a groin pad which is separate and releasably attachable as an accessory to the remainder of the protective armor jacket is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,314 issued Oct. 29, 1991 to Lewis. Unfortunately, the bulk, inflexibility and rigidity of such body armor jackets requires that they be worn externally and thus, are not concealable. Accordingly, such rigid garments, especially those having external attachable groin pad accessories, are not conducive for undercover operations by law enforcement or security personnel. Any element of surprise against a would-be attacker is lost since such rigid and bulky separate accessories must be externally worn by the user and are obviously seen by the attacker. Thus, the attacker is more apt to attack an unprotected area of the body.
Moreover, the rigidity of such external groin accessories significantly restricts the mobility of the wearer and therefore, the accessories are often not even worn by the law enforcement, military or safety personnel wearer. Furthermore, with the groin pads being separate from the remainder of the protective garment, such groin pad accessories require the added step of attaching the external pad, which results in an additional time consuming operation in which such time often may not be available to the user under attack. Also, within the context of close combat, the externally worn groin pad may be moved by the attacker giving the attacker an opportunity to strike a devastating blow.
Other externally placed protective items are known to have a separate groin pad which is folded over and overlies a portion of the protective article at a waist pouch. The separate groin accessory is releasably secured to and deployable from a waist pouch carried externally about the wearer's waist. Such an externally carried separate groin pad accessory deployable from a waist pouch can be seen in the Police Pouch.TM. device of Second Chance Body Armor, Inc. of Central Lake, Mich. and as shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/323,854 of Richard Davis entitled "Ballistic Resistant Garment Assembly and Method Of Using The Same", filed Nov. 25, 1992. This groin pad, separately carried in the waist pouch, requires the added step of deploying it in order to serve any protection of the groin area. If time permits, deployment of the groin pad accessory from the pouch is made. Only then is the pad externally positioned about the groin area to provide protection in this area. Once again, the external pad is not concealable underneath the clothing of the wearer and is not deployed at all times. Furthermore, the pad may reduce the mobility of the wearer and by being externally worn is prone to movement out of position by an attacker thereby potentially exposing vital organs intended to be protected.
Another externally worn and separately attachable/detachable groin pad accessory is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,811 issued Jul. 12, 1994 to Price et al. This groin pad accessory is secured to the front of a body armor device by mating hook and loop fasteners and thus, suffers from the disadvantages of such bulky, external and separate groin pads as previously discussed.
Other relatively cumbersome groin pad inserts exist which are also separate from a protective vest garment. A protective vest garment used with such separate groin pad accessories is worn such that the vest is positioned generally at least one inch above the belt line in order to prevent the bottom of the vest from uncomfortably binding with the belt of the wearer when moving about or sitting. Such separately segmented groin and vest arrangements disadvantageously leave an unprotected area proximate the lower abdominal region of the wearer. Additionally, such arrangements unfortunately provide an unprotected separation between the two distinct elements of the vest and the groin pad, subjecting the wearer to vulnerability in the exposed area to serious injury, if not a fatal one.